Playing
career

As a player, Cox originally signed with the Los Angeles
Dodgers, but was never able to make the Dodger varsity.
Eventually he was acquired by the Braves, but never appeared in an
MLB game for them either. Instead, he was traded to the New York
Yankees on December 7, 1967. Cox played two seasons, mostly
at third base, for the Yanks. Because of bad
knees, Cox became the second in a string of four stopgap players
between Clete Boyer
and Graig
Nettles. He played with fellow OklahomanMickey Mantle during Mantle's final
season in 1968 and with Thurman Munson
during his debut season in 1969.

Atlanta Braves
(1978–1981)

Cox replaced Dave
Bristol as the manager of the Atlanta Braves prior to the 1978 season,
inheriting a team that had finished last in the league during the
previous two seasons and had compiled a worse record than the two
expansion teams, Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle
Mariners, in 1977. Building from the ground up, the
Braves finished last in both 1978 and 1979. Entering 1980, Cox made one of the
unusual moves for which he is known, moving power-hitting first baseman-catcherDale Murphy, who had developed a throwing
block as a catcher that hindered his ability to play, to center
field. Murphy later won two National League Most Valuable Player Awards
and five Gold Gloves, and became one of the premier
players of the 1980s.[2] In 1980, the Braves
finished fourth with their first record above .500 since 1972.
However, Cox was undone by the 1981 baseball
strike when the Braves finished fifth and owner Ted Turner fired him.
Asked at a press conference who was on his short list for manager,
Turner replied, "It would be Bobby Cox if I hadn't just fired him.
We need someone like him around here." The Braves won the National
League West division title in 1982 and finished second in both
1983 and 1984 under Cox's successor
Joe Torre.

Toronto Blue
Jays

Cox joined the Toronto Blue Jays in 1982, who steadily
improved over the four years of his management. In 1985, Cox's fourth season with the club,
the Blue Jays finished first place in the American
League East. That season, the American League
Championship Series was expanded to a best-of-seven format
after sixteen seasons of a best-of-five format. This change
ultimately made the difference when Cox's Blue Jays became only the
fifth team to lose a playoff series after leading 3 games to 1 to
the Kansas City Royals.

Atlanta Braves
(1986–present)

General
Manager

After the Blue Jays' elimination, Cox returned to the Braves as
general manager. After going through two managers over the course
of less than five years with disastrous results in attendance and
outlook, Cox fired Russ
Nixon in June 1990, and appointed himself as the manager. Cox
had spent the prior four seasons accumulating talented players,
including Ron Gant, Tom Glavine, Steve Avery, Pete Smith, and David Justice. He was also responsible
for drafting Chipper
Jones with the first overall pick in the 1990 draft.[3]

1991

In 1991, the Braves, along with the Minnesota Twins, became the
first team to go from last place in one season to first place the
next. The two teams met in the 1991 World Series. Although the
Braves lost, they continued to win division titles for a total of
fourteen consecutive seasons. Cox's 15 division titles is a Major
League record for a manager. On five separate occasions, the Braves
have won the National League
pennant and played in the World Series, including four in a
six-season stretch (1991, 1992, 1995, and 1996).

1995–1996

In 1995, the Atlanta Braves won Cox's
only World
Series championship to date over the Cleveland Indians. In 1996, the Braves again won the
division title. After sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers in
the division series,
the Braves' pitching fell behind the St. Louis Cardinals,
three games to one in the 1996. Facing
elimination, the Braves offense outscored the Cardinals 33–1 over
the final three games and won the pennant. Cox became the only
manager in history to lose a series leading three games to one and
win a series trailing three games to one.[4] The
scoring continued into the first two games against the New York Yankees as the
Braves took a two games to none lead by winning with scores of 12–1
and 4–0 in the World Series. In game four, the
Braves led 6–0 in the fourth inning, but the Yankees came from
behind. Jim Leyritz
homered to tie the game, and the Yankees tied the series with a win
in eleven innings, 8–6.

2002–present

Cox's Braves have not advanced past the first round each of the
last four seasons in which they made the playoffs. In 2002, the Braves won
over 100 games and led the wild cardSan Francisco Giants
two games to one before dropping the last two. In 2003, the Braves pushed the Chicago Cubs to the fifth game
before falling. The following year, the
Braves lost in the
best-of-five Division Series
for the third straight year. In 2005, the Braves lost to the Houston Astros, with the
finale taking eighteen innings to decide in the 2005 NLDS. On
September 23, 2009, Cox signed a one year contract extension
through 2010, and on the same day announced that 2010 will be his
final year as manager. He also announced that he agreed to stay on
as an advisor for team baseball operations for the next five years
after he retires.[5]

Accomplishments

Cox has been named Manager of the
Year four times (1985, 1991, 2004, and 2005) and is one of only
four managers to have won the award in both the American and
National League. He is also the only person to have won the award
in consecutive years. Cox has also been named Manager of the Year
by The Sporting News eight times (1985,
1991, 1993, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005).

On May 12, 2007, Cox passed Sparky Anderson to become the fourth-winningest manager in major league
history, with a record of 2,195 wins and 1,698 losses. He led the
Braves to a division title every season from 1991 to 2005,
excluding the strike-shortened1994 season;
the Braves have competed in the National League East since 1994 and
competed in the National League West prior to that. He won a World
Series Championship in 1995. In 2001, he took sole possession of first
place for most wins as a manager in Braves history.[6]
Cox's .561 winning percentage is fourteenth in all-time among
managers with at least 1,000 games managed, and is the second
highest among those who managed the majority of their career after
the creation of divisions within each league in 1969. On June
8, 2009, Cox won his 2,000th game with the Atlanta Braves, becoming
only the fourth manager in Major League history to accomplish that
feat with one team.[7]

Bobby Cox following an ejection from a game in September
2009.

On September 3, 2008, Cox was ejected for the 143rd time in his
Major League coaching career during the fifth inning of a Braves
game against the Florida Marlins; he currently holds the
all-time record for most ejections (set on August 14, 2007 with his
132nd), previously held by John
McGraw.[8] Unlike
McGraw, Cox does not have a reputation for having a fiery temper
and Cox generally only gets ejected to prevent his players from
being ejected. Cox is also the only person among all players and
managers to be ejected from two World Series games (1992 and 1996). He
was ejected in the ninth inning of game three of the 1992 World
Series for throwing a batting helmet onto the field at the Skydome. Cox was
trying to slam the helmet against the lip of the dugout and missed,
throwing it onto the field. [9]
Cox was tossed again in the final game of the 1996 World
Series after protesting an out call of Marquis Grissom
attempting to take second base on a passed ball. Although video replays
appeared to show Grissom as safe, umpire Terry Tata called him out, and Cox was
tossed in an ensuing argument. [9]

Personal
life

In May 1995, police were called to the home of Bobby and Pamela
Cox in northwest Atlanta, Georgia. Pamela Cox told the
police that her husband struck her. Bobby Cox was charged under
Georgia's Domestic Violence Act[10] with
simple battery. He was accused of punching his
wife and pulling her hair.[11] In a
court settlement, Pamela Cox was instructed by the judge to attend
a battered women's program and Bobby Cox was told to complete
violence counseling and an alcohol evaluation.[12] The
criminal charges against Bobby Cox were dismissed, and he was not
punished by Major League Baseball or the Atlanta Braves for the
incident.